Saturday, 30 August 2008
Arsenal v Newcastle
Bolton v West Brom
Everton v Portsmouth
Hull v Wigan
Man Utd v Fulham — postponed due to Super Cup
Middlesbrough v Stoke
West Ham v Blackburn
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Aston Villa v Liverpool
Chelsea v Tottenham
Sunderland v Man City

There are some interesting clashes this weekend.

Arsenal take on Newcastle at the emirates and it could be a more even contest than most would imagine. Colliccini and Gutierrez are looking very good for the Toon. As are Walcott and Nasri for the Gunners, certainly players for your watch list if not your team.

Villa take on Liverpool on Sunday in what should be a great game, I’m still waiting on the Keane/Torres partnership to gel, if it does they will be a great force in the premiership. Villa are not to be taken lightly however, under the leadership of Martin O’Neill they have gone from strength to strength. Players to watch are Ashley Young, Abonglahor and John Carew. For the Pool Ryan Babel and the talismanic duo Torres and Gerrard.

My Team

Captain of the week
I’m going to have to go with the mercurial Deco(£9.3 million). Chelsea have a superb record against spurs and they remain unbeaten at home for nearly 4 years! I hope he can continue to play as he has.

Buy of the week
I brought in Bosingwa (£6.1 million) this week, the Chelsea fullback has looked a great attacking force down Chelsea’s right flank, hopefully he will provide plenty of assists and clean sheets this year for me.

Players to buy
Vincent Kompany : Heralded as a great defender since some sublime performance in the champions league while at Belgian side Anderlecht in his teens. He has pace, power and is tipped for greatness. He should form a formidable partnership alongside Richard Dunne at the heart of the man City defence.

Stephen Ireland/Shaun Wright-Phillips : I’m not sure which of these two will start on the right for City, but both are excellent players and will earn a lot of points if they play.

Brede Hangeland : Acquired from Norwegian side Rosenburg in Jan 2008, he is keeping clean sheets in the centre of the Fulham defence.

Michal Arteta : The Everton midfielder is looking back to his best after last seasons injury problems, definitely worth a look.

Gamble of the week
Peter Crouch : The long striker has had poor service in his first two games against top 4 opposition, but he should start to get a few more chances in coming weeks.

Good Luck Everyone!!

What do you think?

These days the money is getting really tight in FPL and you only have £100 million for 15 players. With the top players like Lampard, Gerrard, Henry, Shevchenko all costing £10 million+, £47.5 million for the lot!, you won’t have much money left for your other 11 players. Some people can improve their transfer budget by over £10 million over the course of the year, thats enough cash for a top class scoring midfielder or better yet to improve the quality of 3-4 players in your team, which can make a big difference.

So here are my top five ways to get your cashflow up so you can start to afford the top players.

1) Buy and sell quickly, don’t wait for a few weeks to see how things pan out, take a chance. Leaving the purchase of a player even two or three days can on occasion be enough to cost you 0.1 or 0.2 Million.
2) Buy players who have exceptional one off weeks e.g Taylor from Portsmouth got a 23 one week! Needless to say his price rose that week.
3) Read the �real� FPL’s pundit’s recommendations (a lot of people listen to him and he can cause some movement in the transfer market, even if the choices go belly up)
4) At the begining of a season, look at players who done very well in the Championship. Pay particular attention to goal scoring midfielders and strikers with 20+ goals in the championship. Every year the money seems to get tighter and tighter in FPL so you will need to find the odd �diamond in the rough� to boost your earnings and your cashflow.
5) Take a gamble every now and then on a player. Look at players that are playing poor teams for a few weeks in a row and buy a player you think will do well for them (this applies to the midtable and relegation candidates mostly as a top player will cost you big money)
If anyone has other top tips for making money in the transfer market, post them in the comments and the best ones will be added to the list.

If anyone has other top tips for making money in the transfer market, post them in the comments and the best ones will be added to the list.